Ingram Doesn't Mind Being the Sweatiest Guy on the Team
CHAPEL HILL – A recent topic around the North Carolina basketball team was the need to find a nickname for sophomore guard Seth Trimble.
Graduate forward Armando Bacot thought “B-12 Shot” was pretty good, though there’s no word on it has been applied yet. As for junior forward Harrison Ingram, if one is to take Stanford transfer at his word, the names sent his way by other Tar Heels may not be so complimentary. But that’s okay, Ingram doesn’t seem to mind much, as it's all in good fun.
“Every day, they tell me I’m sweaty, I’m nasty, whatever," Ingram said following the Tar Heels’ 103-67 win over Syracuse on Saturday. "I like to do the dirty work, play hard, run around.”
Ingram admittedly sweats a ton during games. In fact, his propensity to soak uniforms was part of his recruiting pitch to UNC Coach Hubert Davis last spring. Yes, Ingram had a bit of a mandate in order to become a Tar Heel.
“I told them the only way I’m coming to UNC is if they give me two jerseys (laughter),” he said, laughing.
Wait, what?
“(Davis) just laughed, ‘Okay, we can do that,"' Ingram recalled, laughing. "'Okay, I’m coming.'"
The media assembled around Ingram in the interview room connected to Carolina’s locker room was also having a good time with Ingram’s sweaty tale that literally came from out of nowhere.
It began with a rather general question about the Tar Heels wearing throwback uniforms.
“I didn’t know until they told me,” Ingram said before swinging open his vault. “I sweat a lot, so I get two jerseys usually, and they told me today I only get one.”
So, Ingram played 25 minutes in UNC’s rout of the Orange, and his jersey was probably pretty drenched. In last Wednesday’s win at NC State, when Ingram pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds, both Carolina blue road jerseys likely got soaked. What about his shorts, or even his socks? Surely, they are sopping wet, too.
“I change completely,” Ingram said, once again laughing, as the whole matter came with a constant smile by the Dallas, TX, native.
“I’ll take this (jersey) off, my undershirt off, go to the bathroom, underwear, everything, completely change,” he said. “New socks, new everything.”
It isn’t that Ingram is one of those guys you might see in the mall with a towel over his shoulder because he’s a mega-sweater no matter what he’s doing or the time of year. It’s a hoops thing, at least that’s all Carolina’s third-leading scorer said.
Ingram is the only Tar Heels who gets two jerseys for every game. Two uniforms, actually. And while his actual nickname within Carolina’s locker room isn’t yet known, it appears the odds are pretty solid it has something to do with his dripping hoops nature.